


What Could Have Been

by Raccoonfg



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 22:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9404912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raccoonfg/pseuds/Raccoonfg
Summary: It was out there on the lonely highway road that Judy sat behind the Hopp’s Farm produce stand, staring out into the endless fields of vegetables as the newspaper under her arms rustled in the summer wind.





	

It was out there on the lonely highway road that Judy sat behind the Hopp’s Farm produce stand, staring out into the endless fields of vegetables as the newspaper under her arms rustled in the summer wind.

The warm breeze felt soothing as it flowed through her fur. As soon as it had passed, Judy ran a paw against her cheek, trying to recreate that calming sensation. Brushing her digits deep, she could feel the light scar tissue that remained from that unforgettable run-in so many years ago at the Carrot Days fair.

Tracing her paw down her face and along her neck, Judy tugged her collar open a little just as another gust blew in from the horizon, allowing the air to flow inside, refreshing her body as she softly smiled at the simple joy of a beautiful day.

“Well ain’t you a pretty picture.”

Judy raised her heavy eyelids and turned to face the voice that came from beside her and she saw Gideon loading a tray of fruit pies into the back of his little pink delivery van.

“Heading into town?” she asked him.

“Sure am,” Gideon replied with a smile and slid the tray into one of the empty shelves. “Be back later today.”

“You better,” Judy smirked, placing a hand on her hip as it protruded to the side, “or else my mom is going to be very disappointed in you for missing dinner.”

Gideon grinned and rolled his eyes before he started walking over to Judy; clapping flour off his paws and brushing crumbs off his apron.

“Well,” he chuckled, wrapping a paw around Judy’s waist, “I wouldn’t want to disappoint Mrs. H.” Bringing a knuckle under her chin, he tipped her face up to his. “She might not want me hanging around so much anymore.”

The two shared a mischievously knowing smile before they brought their lips together for a brief, yet tender, peck.

Judy was still savoring the lingering moistness on her lips when she felt Gideon’s thumb running over the same scarring she had touched moments earlier. A soft regretful look was visible in his eyes.

“I don’t think I can ever get over doing this to you,” he murmured.

Judy clasped her paws to his arm, holding it to her face, and she nuzzled her cheek against his palm.

“You know I forgive you, Gideon.” She stopped her rubbing and gazed up at him with a sympathetic smile. “Besides, if you didn’t I wouldn’t have understood what my parents were so worried about when I said I wanted to be a cop when I grew up.” Pulling down his arm, Judy shifted Gideon’s paw to her chest, right over her beating heart. “And if that didn’t happen, then I would have been running around god-knows-where in Zootopia, chasing two-bit crooks, instead of being right where I belong. Here. With you.”

The intimate contact made Gideon flush a little under his fur, but he still left his paw right where Judy placed it.

“W-well, heh, if you put it that way…” Gideon skittishly coughed as he averted her gaze with his school-boy bashfulness. “S-still, with how Zootopia is goin’ to heck in a picnic-basket lately, what with all these savage attacks.” He gestured his free paw towards the open newspaper near Judy, which was turned to a new report on Mayor Bellwether addressing the savage crisis. “I’m jes’ worried it could happen to me too, an’-- Well…. I’d truly never forgive myself if I ever hurt you again.”

“Oh Gideon,” Judy released his hand and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face into his chest, “don’t worry about me, I can still take care of myself.”

Listening to the thumping heartbeat within him, she felt Gideon’s body shudder with a light chuckle, and then the wet pressure of his lips kissing the top of her head, right between her long floppy ears.

“I know, I know…” He soothingly replied. “I’ll see you later today, okay Baby Bunny?”

And with that he walked off to his van and drove off, leaving a cloud of dust wafting behind him.

Judy watched him vanish off into the distance, and still continued to gaze his way long after there was nothing remaining. She was left alone to her quiet solitude once again.

At least, it was silent until the tell-tale sound of rustling leaves started to grow from far off and swelled up ever more as the renewed breeze closed in on her. She felt so lazy in the heat that Judy nearly didn’t react quick enough when the wind reached her unattended newspaper, casually flipping the pages with an invisible force.

Dashing over to stop any chances of it being scattered across the empty road, Judy slapped her paw down on the paper, halting it as the wind was halfway flipping through the day’s edition. With a sigh of relief, Judy glanced down at the open section and her eyes caught sight of a quarter-page recruitment ad for the ZPD, which stated their motto of ‘Integrity. Bravery. Trust.’ next to a picture of a ram in full dress uniform.

The air went still and the pages relaxed, settling down below her paw as she read and reread the words of the ad. Slowly she retracted her paw and turned away to look off down the opposite end of the road, away from where Gideon had driven, towards the city of Zootopia, and she felt herself filling up with a strange feeling.

She couldn’t quite place what this feeling was.

It wasn’t regret, or longing, or unhappiness.

It was something far harder to place; a sort of intangible sense of something being amiss.

A feeling of what could have been.


End file.
